Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 6.28 percent this year, up from a 4.23 percent growth forecast in March, on the back of stronger private consumption and investment.
That is the most optimistic prediction so far and the nation’s largest financial service provider expects other institutions, including the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), to follow suit soon.
Cathay Financial chief economic adviser Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) told a media briefing that GDP may total NT$15.1 trillion (US$521.19 billion), exceeding the NT$15 trillion level for the first time in history.
DOMESTIC DEMAND
Kuan, who is also an economic professor at National Taiwan University, said stronger domestic demand will propel the economy — accounting for 91.2 percent of the 6.28 percent growth forecast, with net external demand to contribute the rest.
However, his view diverges from that of the director-general of DGBAS, who last month said that external demand would drive 78.7 percent of economic growth, estimated at 5.06 percent for this year.
“The main difference lies in a rosier view we have about private investment, which may expand 15 percent this year, compared with a 0.62 percent decline predicted by DGBAS,” Kuan said.
Cathay Financial also expects private consumption to be stronger than the government’s projected 3.96 percent increase from the year-earlier level, Kuan said.
However, he did not provide an exact figure.
RENEWED CONFIDENCE
Sales of cars and other durable goods have picked up significantly this year, suggesting the recovery in consumer confidence is solid, rather than a short-term, phenomenon, Kuan said.
Cathay Financial expects foreign trade to remain dynamic with imports growth to outpace growth in exports, although the momentum may slow a bit in the next two months until September, the traditional high season for electronic products.
The food-contamination scare, the new luxury tax on property transactions and the pace of economic recovery in the West all create certainty about the forecast, Kuan said.
“It is too early to gauge the impact of the tax or the food crisis on the economy,” he said.
The jobless rate in the US remains above 9 percent, showing that the world’s biggest economy has not stabilized yet, Kuan said.
Cathay Financial expects Taiwan’s economy to expand a modest 2.06 percent this quarter from last year, compared with to the government’s forecast of a 1.22 percent contraction.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained